Angry Birds Developer Rovio Says $1.2B Evaluation Is Too Low

Based on funding talks in August, Angry Birds developer Rovio has been valued at $1.2B based on the 400 million and free downloads of the game since 2009, but "Mighty Eagle" Chief Marketing Officer Peter Vesterbacka believes that this estimate is conservative:

We're happy with our valuation but we think it's probably a bit north of that.

We're not ready to file for an IPO tomorrow. Maybe a year from now... We're insanely profitable... We're not a publicly traded company yet but we can fund our own growth.

We think we have a good shot at being the first entertainment brand that has a billion fans -- people we can talk to and have a dialog with every day.

Disney started as a black and white cartoon about this little mouse. Nintendo has been working on Mario for 26 years. Angry Birds is less than two years old.

Walking through the Chinese mall next to my apartment, I see Angry Birds merchandise in stores normally reserved for the likes of Mario, Sonic, and Final Fantasy. I have my eyes on some of the Angry Birds pillows, and I haven't even played Angry Birds. I just know that I can throw the pillow at someone and laugh about it. The point is that I have no idea whether $1.2B is really a low estimate, though it might be one that's set-up for crash-and-burn failure.